High availability small foot-print server

ABSTRACT

A novel high availability small foot-print server is described in which four or more separate computer modules and associated power supply and communication connections or other units are clustered together in a single server chassis to occupy a limited amount of space while providing maximum accessibility for administrative, maintenance, installation, or other purposes. Each separate computer module is equipped with its own fan or blower box to provide redundancy in the case of fan or blower box failure. The server chassis is contoured to provide for natural interconnection such that more than one high availability small foot-print server may be stacked together to take up the same amount of floor, shelf, or desk space as a single server.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relates generally to computer servers. Inparticular, the present invention relates to an improved server designfor housing and cooling multiple computer modules, power supplies, busrouters, and the like, in a limited space.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] Advances in computer technology have allowed individuals andbusinesses to operate multiple full-scale computer server systems fromwithin the home and small or remote offices. In this environment, or anyother environment where floor and desk space is limited, it is importantthat the computer equipment occupies a relatively small amount of spacewhile receiving adequate ventilation and access to power supplies andnetwork connections that enable communication over the Internet or aprivate network.

[0003] There are a number of prior art solutions to assist with theinstallation of multiple pieces of computer equipment in a compactspace, such as the traditional rack mounted server or a Local AreaNetwork (LAN) closet. For example, servers are housed in large computercases (i.e. mini-towers) that can either sit on the floor or that can bebuilt into a rack-mounted chassis. The traditional rack-mounted serversare approximately 19 inches wide, and do not to make the most efficientuse of space. They also fail to adequately address the ventilation,communication, and power supply needs of the computers they house. TheLAN closet, while a compact storage area, renders the computers somewhatinaccessible and may also fail to address the necessary ventilation,communication, and power supply needs of the computers that they house.

[0004] Another popular prior art solution for simplifying theinstallation of multiple pieces of computer equipment is to make themstackable, thereby eliminating the need for an external rack. Forexample, Intel Corporation, the assignee of the present application forpatent, sells a line of 5- and 8-port communication hubs under thetrademark Intel InBusiness®, that utilize a stackable modular design.However, such individual stackable modules also fail to address theventilation, communication, and power supply needs of multiple pieces ofequipment in a limited space. For example, multiple central processingunits (CPUs) present in a typical server system require a reliablecooling flow of air (i.e. system air) in order to operate properly.Since the stackable, rack-mounted, and LAN closet solutions do notaddress the individual system air cooling requirements of each CPU,there exists an undesirable single point of failure if the air coolingsystem in the area where the CPUs are located fails.

[0005] What is needed, therefore, is a new approach that simplifies theinstallation of multiple pieces of computer equipment in a limitedspace, while providing support for the ventilation, communication, andpower supply needs of each piece of equipment in a manner that isaccessible, fault-tolerant, and efficient.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0006] The present invention will be described by way of exemplaryembodiments, but not limitations, illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings in which like references denote similar elements, and in which:

[0007]FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of a high availability smallfoot-print server chassis in accordance with one embodiment;

[0008]FIG. 2 illustrates a perspective view of two high availabilitysmall foot-print server chassis stacked one on top of the other inaccordance with one embodiment;

[0009]FIG. 3 illustrates a rear perspective view of a high availabilitysmall foot-print server chassis housing multiple computer modules inaccordance with one embodiment;

[0010]FIG. 4 illustrates a front perspective view of a single computermodule capable of being housed in a high availability small foot-printserver chassis as illustrated in FIG. 3 and in accordance with oneembodiment;

[0011]FIG. 5 illustrates a front perspective view of the single computermodule illustrated in FIG. 4 in accordance with one embodiment;

[0012]FIG. 6 illustrates a rear perspective view of the interior of thesingle computer module illustrated in FIG. 4 in accordance with oneembodiment; and

[0013]FIG. 7 illustrates the flow of air through the interior of thesingle computer module illustrated in FIG. 6 in accordance with oneembodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0014] In the following description various aspects of the presentinvention, a high availability small foot-print server will bedescribed. Specific details will be set forth in order to provide athorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will beapparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may bepracticed with only some or all of the described aspects of the presentinvention, and with or without some or all of the specific details. Insome instances, well-known features may be omitted or simplified inorder not to obscure the present invention.

[0015] Parts of the description will be presented using terminologycommonly employed by those skilled in the art to convey the substance oftheir work to others skilled in the art, including terms that refer tocomputer system components, such as servers, routers, hubs, buses, harddrives, memory, input/output (I/O), racks, chassis, computer cases,power supplies, and the like. The terminology further includesoperations performed by a computer system, and their operands, such astransmitting, receiving, and the like. As well understood by thoseskilled in the art, these operands take the form of electrical,magnetic, or optical signals, and the operations involve storing,transferring, combining, and otherwise manipulating the signals throughelectrical, magnetic or optical components of a system. The term systemincludes general purpose as well as special purpose arrangements ofthese components that are standalone, adjunct or embedded.

[0016] Various operations will be described as multiple discrete stepsperformed in turn in a manner that is most helpful in understanding thepresent invention. However, the order of description should not beconstrued as to imply that these operations are necessarily performed inthe order they are presented, or even order dependent. Lastly, repeatedusage of the phrase “in one embodiment” does not necessarily refer tothe same embodiment, although it may.

[0017]FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of a high availability smallfoot-print server chassis 100 in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention. As shown, the server chassis 100 is an approximatelyrectangular-shaped cube for housing multiple server units. The serverchassis 100 comprises five surfaces including a top surface 104, abottom surface 106 disposed substantially parallel to the top surface104, a front surface 108 disposed substantially perpendicular to the top104 and bottom 106 surfaces, and opposing side surfaces 110. Theopposing side surfaces 110 are uniformly disposed substantially parallelto each other while at the same time substantially perpendicular to thetop 104, bottom 106, and front 108 surfaces. The rear of the serverchassis 100 is open in order to receive one or more server modules,power supply, communications hub, or other server component housedwithin the server chassis 100.

[0018] In one embodiment, the server chassis 100 may be integrallyconstructed of a substantially rigid material, the approximatedimensions of which are a width of 12 inches by a depth of 9 inches by aheight of 7 inches, thereby making the server chassis 100 suitable forplacing on a desktop or shelf, without occupying the majority of thedesktop or shelf surface 200. Of course, other dimensions of the serverchassis 100 may be used without departing from the scope of theinvention, as long as the server chassis 100 creates a relatively smallfoot-print on a typical desktop or shelf surface 200, and issufficiently small in height to reasonably allow three or more serverchassis 100 to be stacked atop one another. In one embodiment, theserver chassis 100 may also be assembled, in whole or in part, fromindividually formed surfaces 104, 106, 108, and 110, joined or fastenedtogether in a permanent or semi-permanent (i.e. allowing fordisassembly) fashion into a single server chassis 100 without departingfrom the scope of the invention. In the illustrated embodiment, thefront surface 108 of the server chassis 100 contains a series ofopenings 102 that allow for visual inspection of a server computermodule, power supply, communications hub, or other server componentcontained within the server chassis 100, including the visual inspectionof any status lights or indicators on the server component that may bevisible through the openings 102. The remaining areas of the frontsurface not taken up by the openings 102 may be either flat or contouredwithout departing from the scope of the invention. In one embodiment,the opposing side surfaces 110 may be contoured in a convex fashion asillustrated; however other contours of the side surfaces 110 may also beemployed without departing from the scope of the invention, includingside surfaces 110 that are substantially flat, or without any contour.

[0019] The top surface 104 and bottom surface 106 are compatiblycontoured into depressed areas 114 and raised areas 116 such as theopposing sinusoidal wave contours in the illustrated embodiment. Asillustrated in FIG. 2, the contours of the top 104 and bottom 106surfaces are such that one server chassis 100 may be stacked on top ofanother identically contoured server chassis 100 in a naturalinterconnecting fashion. Other compatible contours of the top 104 andbottom 106 surfaces other than the illustrated opposing sinusoidal wavecontours may be employed without departing from the scope of theinvention. An unlimited number of server chassis 100 may beinterconnected in a stacked fashion as illustrated, although areasonable stack would be two (as illustrated) or three server chassisto provide up to twelve or so server computer modules and associatedpower supplies and communication connections in a limited space.

[0020]FIG. 3 illustrates a rear perspective view of a high availabilitysmall foot-print server chassis 100 housing multiple server computermodules 300 in accordance with one embodiment. As illustrated, theserver chassis 100 is open in the rear and encases an internal rack 118that is comprised of multiple slots 120 that may each be occupied by asingle computer module 300, with at least one slot 122 reserved for apower supply, communications hub, or other unit 400, that is capable ofproviding power and/or an integrated network interface to individualcomputer nodules 300. In one embodiment, the internal rack 118 isprovided for ease of inserting or removing the computer modules 300, orother unit 400 into or from the server chassis 100 in a sliding fashion.In one embodiment, the internal rack 118 may be integrated with theserver chassis 100 such that the internal rack 118 is fixed and eachcomputer module 300 or other unit 400 is inserted or removedindividually from server chassis 100 in a sliding fashion.

[0021] In one embodiment the rear of server chassis 100 is entirely openallowing unfettered access to each single computer module 300 housed inslots 120 of server chassis 100, as well as unfettered access to thepower supply, communications hub, or other unit 400 housed in slot 122of internal rack 118 encased in server chassis 100.

[0022] In one embodiment, the integrated network interface of unit 400may be an Ethernet hub or switch, which is known in the art.Alternatively, the integrated network interface of unit 400 may be anInfiniband hub, which is an emerging standard for an interconnectnetwork protocol that is known in the art.

[0023]FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate a rear and front perspective view,respectively, of a single computer module 300 capable of being housed ina high availability small foot-print server chassis 100 as illustratedin FIG. 3 and in accordance with one embodiment. The computer module 300may be a embedded computer with a hard drive, memory and associated I/Oas is known in the art. The computer module 300 is encased in anElectro-Magnetic Compatibility (EMC) enclosure 302, also referred to asa “Faraday box,” that covers all sides of the computer module 300,including the top 312, bottom 314, front 306, rear 308, and the twosides 334 of the computer module 300 to shield each computer module 300from the neighboring computer modules 300 housed in the other slots 120of internal rack 118 encased by server chassis 100. In one embodiment,the EMC enclosure 302 is provided with a lip 304 extending lengthwisealong the top and bottom side edges. The lip 304 of EMC enclosure 302 isdesigned to fit within each individual slot 120 of rack 118 in serverchassis 100 so as to secure the insertion or removal of the servercomputer module 300 as well as to guide the computer module 300 intoproper position within the slot 120. In one embodiment, the EMCenclosure 302 is fastened to computer module 300 using a fastener 316 ina manner that is known in the art. In one embodiment, the EMC enclosure302 is equipped on the top 312 with a vent 318 that is positioned over afan (320 in FIG. 6) within computer module 300 to allow the unobstructedflow of air into the fan intake opening (322 in FIG. 6).

[0024] In one embodiment, the rear end 306 of computer module 300illustrated in FIG. 4 contains, among other features, the outlets andinlets for the various ports, connections, and sockets of the computermodule 300 for receiving cable, modem, or peripheral connections,whereas the front end 308 of the computer module 300 illustrated in FIG.5 contains, among other features, the various status or other indicators310 that may be visible through openings 102 of server chassis 100.

[0025]FIG. 6 illustrates computer module 300 with the top 312 of the EMCenclosure 302 removed to reveal the interior and selected componentstherein. As illustrated, each individual computer module 300 includes,among other components, its own fan or blower box 320 equipped with afan intake opening 322 for drawing in air through the vent 318 of theEMC enclosure 302 from the surrounding environment within the serverchassis 100 in which the computer module 300 is housed.

[0026]FIG. 7 again illustrates computer module 300 with the top 312 ofthe EMC enclosure 302 removed to reveal the interior and selectedcomponents therein, and further illustrates the flow of air 324 from thefan or blower box 320. As illustrated, a continuing air flow 326 and328, cools the interior and other components of computer module 300,with an exiting air flow 330 out of annular openings 332 in the rear 306of computer module 300 to exit finally through the open rear of theserver chassis 100 in which the computer module 300 is housed. Theprovision of a fan or blower box 320 in each individual computer module300 housed in server chassis 100 insures that there is not a singlepoint of failure in the air cooling system, since without proper aircooling, the computer module 300 will fail. By eliminating this singlepoint of failure in the air cooling system, the small foot-print serveris capable of providing redundancy amongst the computer modules 300 suchthat one computer module 300 can take over when a neighboring one failsdue to air cooling or other failure. Therefore, the small foot-printserver of the present invention provides for improved fault-toleranceand high availability.

[0027] Accordingly, a novel high availability small foot-print server isdescribed in which one or more separate computer modules 300 andassociated power supply and communication connections or other unit 400may be clustered together in a single server chassis 100 to occupy alimited amount of space while providing maximum accessibility foradministrative, maintenance, installation, or other purposes. Forexample, one computer module 300 may be slaved to another neighboringcomputer module 300 housed in the same server chassis 100, or a singlecomputer module 300 can be serviced or replaced without bringing downthe neighboring modules 300. Clustering the computer modules 300together with the supporting unit 400 in an integrated fashion canfacilitate a software-controlled automatic fail-over such that the smallfoot-print server of the present invention provides improved faulttolerance and high availability. In addition, each separate computermodule 300 is equipped with its own fan or blower box 320 to providefurther redundancy in the case of fan or blower box failure. The serverchassis 100 is contoured to provide for natural interconnection suchthat more than one high availability small foot-print server may bestacked together to take up the same amount of floor, shelf, or deskspace as a single server chassis 100 would. From the foregoingdescription, those skilled in the art will recognize that many othervariations of the present invention are possible. Thus, the presentinvention is not limited by the details described. Instead, the presentinvention can be practiced with modifications and alterations within thespirit and scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A small foot-print server comprising: a serverchassis having a small foot-print; a first computer module housed in theserver chassis, the first computer module having a first fan; a secondcomputer module housed in the server chassis, the second computer modulehaving a second fan operating independently of the first fan; and acommunication module housed in the server chassis having an integratednetwork interface coupled to the first and second computer modules. 2.The small foot-print server of claim 1, further comprising: a powersupply module housed in the server chassis coupled to the first andsecond computer modules.
 3. The small foot-print server of claim 1,wherein the small foot-print is not more than 12 inches wide by 9 inchesdeep.
 4. The small foot-print server of claim 1, wherein the secondcomputer module is a backup to the first computer module when the firstfan fails.
 5. The small foot-print server of claim 1, wherein the firstand second computer modules share access to the integrated networkinterface.
 6. The small foot-print server of claim 2, wherein the firstand second computer modules derive power from the power supply module.7. The small foot-print server of claim 1, wherein the first computermodule is housed in the server chassis in a first slot.
 8. The smallfoot-print server of claim 7, wherein the second computer module ishoused in the server chassis in a second slot.
 9. The small foot-printserver of claim 8, wherein the first computer module is capable ofinsertion into the first slot without disturbing the second computermodule.
 10. The small foot-print server of claim 8, wherein the firstcomputer module is capable of insertion into the first slot withoutdisturbing the second computer module in the second slot.
 11. The smallfoot-print server of claim 8, wherein the first computer module iscapable of removal from the first slot without disturbing the secondcomputer module in the second slot.
 12. The small foot-print server ofclaim 1, wherein the integrated network interface is an Ethernet hub.13. The small foot-print server of claim 1, wherein the integratednetwork interface is an Ethernet switch.
 14. The small foot-print serverof claim 1, wherein the integrated network interface is an Infinibandhub.
 15. The small foot-print server of claim 1, wherein a contour of atop surface of the server chassis is shaped to permit stacking a secondserver chassis atop the server chassis in a natural interconnectingfashion.
 16. The small foot-print server of claim 14, wherein thecontour of the top surface of the server chassis is a first sinusoidalwave, and a contour of a bottom surface of the server chassis is asecond sinusoidal wave, the second sinusoidal wave contour being alignedto oppose the first sinusoidal wave contour to achieve a naturalinterconnect between the stacked chassis.
 17. A server chassiscomprising: a receptacle having five sides perpendicularly disposed toform an opening on the sixth side to receive a first computer modulehaving a first fan, and second computer module having a second fanindependent of the first fan, the first computer module operating toautomatically fail over to the second computer module when the first fanof the first computer module fails, the receptacle having a smallfoot-print on a horizontal surface.
 18. The server chassis of claim 17,wherein the opening receives a communication module that is capable ofcoupling to the first and second computer module to provide a commonintegrated network interface.
 19. The server chassis of claim 17,wherein the opening receives a power module that is capable of couplingto the first and second computer module to provide a common powersupply.
 20. The server chassis of claim 17, wherein a top side and abottom side of the server chassis is shaped to permit stacking a secondserver chassis atop the server chassis in a natural interconnectingfashion.
 21. The server chassis of claim 20, wherein the top side of theserver chassis is shaped as a first sinusoidal wave, and the bottom sideis shaped as a second sinusoidal wave, wherein the second sinusoidalwave shape is aligned to oppose the first sinusoidal wave shape toachieve a natural interconnect between the stacked chassis.
 22. Theserver chassis of claim 17, wherein the small foot-print is not morethan 12 inches wide by 9 inches deep on the horizontal surface.
 23. Amethod for a high availability small foot-print server comprising:inserting a first computer module into a server chassis having a smallfootprint, the first computer module having a first fan; inserting asecond computer module into the server chassis without disturbing thefirst computer module, the second computer module having a second fanoperating independently of the first fan; and controlling the firstcomputer module to automatically fail over to the second computer whenthe first fan fails.
 24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:inserting a communication module into the server chassis, thecommunication module providing an integrated network interface to thefirst and second computer modules.
 25. The method of claim 23, furthercomprising: inserting a power module into the server chassis, the powersupply module providing a common power supply to the first and secondcomputer modules.
 26. The method of claim 23, wherein the smallfoot-print is not more than 12 inches wide by 9 inches deep, enablingthe server chassis to occupy a limited space on a horizontal worksurface.
 27. The method of claim 23, further comprising: stacking theserver chassis atop a second server chassis, wherein a contour of abottom surface of the server chassis and a contour of a top surface ofthe second server chassis are compatibly shaped to permit the serverchassis to interconnect to the second server chassis in a naturalmanner.
 28. The method of claim 23, wherein the contour of the bottomsurface of the server chassis is a first sinusoidal wave, and a contourof the top surface of the second server chassis is a second sinusoidalwave, the second sinusoidal wave contour being aligned to oppose thefirst sinusoidal wave contour to achieve a natural interconnect betweenthe stacked chassis.